Power. We all need it. It is vital to our daily lives and we can’t imagine life without the comfort of cooking our meals, taking a hot shower or simply turning on a light.

But we read every day that the world is running out of resources, that our increasing power use is causing global warming, that electricity prices are going to rise. We’re hearing more and more about solar power, battery technology, wind power and the rise of renewables.

We’ve selected our trial houses in Vasse which have already taken the first step towards a renewable household by installing solar panels, but their home still relies on electricity during the evenings when there is no sunlight.

The aim of the Trial is to test the existing solar panels with battery technology and the use of a natural gas powered generator as back up, rather than relying entirely on the electricity grid that currently supplies all the backup services to a home with solar panels.

Just as you do now, each of them will draw the power from the sun during the day to produce electricity. By retrofitting the house with batteries and a natural gas generator; the excess power produced from the solar panels will be stored in the batteries to be used in the evenings.

When the sun goes down, their houses will use the stored power from the battery to meet the households power needs. If for some reason the stored power in the batteries has been exhausted and the grid is having constraints, ATCO will deploy the gas generator at the request of Western Power and recharge the batteries. So, if the houses use more electricity than the amount that the battery holds in times of peak electricity demand, this could avoid the impact of electricity supply interruptions in the area.

In times of electricity supply interruptions, these houses can use the gas generated electricity until the grid is restored. This means they will have the most reliable and constant supply of electricity in the street and be demonstrating the benefits of the future grid.

Imagine if, in new residential developments, homes were able to generate enough solar electricity with natural gas generated electricity as back up. This could, potentially, eliminate the need for electricity network upgrades which would lower infrastructure costs and result in reducing carbon emissions and, possibly, lower power costs. We will have unlocked nature’s ability to provide us with enough power to reliably supply our needs.

ATCO is a diversified global corporation delivering service excellence and innovative business solutions in Structures & Logistics, Electricity, Pipelines & Liquids, and Retail Energy. More information about ATCO can be found on www.ATCO.com.